The Legality and Ethical Issues of Certifying Laypersons as Mental Health Counselors in India

Autor: Sharad Philip, K. Rakesh Chander, Prateek Varshney, Rahul Patley, Praveen Pandey, Satish Suhas, P. Lakshmi Nirisha, Suchandra, B. Vinay, Narayana Manjunatha, C. Naveen Kumar, Suresh Bada Math
Jazyk: angličtina
Rok vydání: 2022
Předmět:
Zdroj: Indian Journal of Psychological Medicine, Vol 44 (2022)
Druh dokumentu: article
ISSN: 0253-7176
0975-1564
02537176
DOI: 10.1177/02537176221074253
Popis: Background: The burden of mental health conditions and consequent disability impacts are felt most in low- and middle-income settings. These settings are constrained by the limited availability of resources to provide even essential aspects of mental health care (MHC). Task shifting and sharing interventions have shown promise in delivering community-based MHC across such low-resource settings. Some counseling tasks such as friendship bench interventions have been successfully shifted to laypersons. However, ethical and legal concerns regarding laypersons’ incorporation in MHC delivery systems have not been examined. Purpose: To examine the ethical and legal concerns surrounding the certification of laypersons as community-based mental health counselors. Method: We undertook an academic review of various legislations pertinent to MHC service delivery and the certification of allied health care professionals to inform on acceptable and tenable strategies toward incorporating such a task-shifted intervention. Conclusion: Scaling up the training of human resources to address access problems can be the first step in addressing the MHC access and treatment gaps. The certification of laypersons as community-based mental health counselors, although legally tenuous, can be pioneered by tertiary-level MHC institutions. This certification has sound ethical justification and is a progressive step toward realizing universal mental health coverage.
Databáze: Directory of Open Access Journals
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